The election year is disrupting the normally smooth, quiet summer in the United States. Newspapers replace Harry Potter books as beach reading, Republican and Democratic conventions dominate television, the two parties are finalizing platforms, the two candidates exchange mutual verbal abuse, voters watch and comment. Liberal-minded bookstores already display signs like "No more Texans," although Al Gore also gets his share of poster criticism.

Foreign-policy issues are not at the center of debate by any means. Even the Balkans, the favorite topic of American newspapers for the last several years, are rarely mentioned. Americans generally almost never choose their president on his foreign-policy views. This time is no exception, especially because international relations are experiencing a lull. No new invasions, no sensational mass murders, no large-scale purges anywhere. Russia is quietly devouring Chechnya, China snarls at Taiwan, Serbia snaps at the democratic opposition. No obvious challenge for either Gore or Bush, no visible threat to the U.S.

But for foreign nations, the U.S. election is always sensational. True, it happens every four years, but whoever is elected president is the single most powerful person on Earth. Rest assured that various secret services are working hard on psychological profiles of Bush and Gore; spies, desperate for revelations, are shadowing the candidates' staff members and frantically taping all sorts of casual conversations in restaurants and dark alleys. And all for nothing.